Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

If any of you didn't know, the title of this post is the recently released title of the ultimate volume in JK Rowling's engrossing and brilliant septology. If you want to check out the clever way in which JKR hid the title and gave it to fans as a sort of early Christmas present, visit her website. If you want good instructions on how exactly to find this present without clicking a lot and getting frustrated, visit Leaky or probably any HP fan site.

There are a few things i now want to make clear that many people are being stupid about. Then i also have a little bit of speculation/logical deduction (which will be marked off w/ spoiler warnings, so read on, Paul).

The last word in the title is Hallows, not to be confused with Hollows. Lots of people have been speculating about this being a reference to Godric's Hollow, where Harry's parents were killed. These people are morons. At most, Rowling is using the similarity as a bit of a play on words. With that cleared up, it should also be noticed that "Hallows" is being used as a noun, not as an adjective or verb (which is the way we are used to "hallow" being used). The adjectives "the" and "deathly" remove all doubt about the part of speech. Now that we know that we are dealing with the plural noun, "hallows," the OED seems like a reasonable place to turn. This is what it has to say:

1. A holy personage, a SAINT. (Little used after 1500, and now preserved only in ALL-HALLOWS and its combinations, q.v.)

2. In pl. applied to the shrines or relics of saints; the gods of the heathen or their shrines.
In the phrase to seek hallows, to visit the shrines or relics of saints; orig. as in sense 1, the saints themselves being thought of as present at their shrines. Cf. quot. c1440 in 1.

b. holy of hallows: see HOLY.

3. hallow- in Comb. (chiefly in Sc.) is used for ALL-HALLOW- = All Saints'-, in HALLOW-DAY, HALLOW-E'EN, HALLOWMAS, HALLOW-TIDE; also hallow-fair, a fair or market held at Hallowmas; hallow-fire, a bonfire kindled on All-hallow-e'en, an ancient Celtic observance.


In the context of Harry Potter, definition 2 fits quite well as the series is constantly incorporating artifacts and relics, two of the other titles incorporate these very things (Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone and Goblet of Fire). The prominence of Halloween in many of the books fits nicely with definition three. We know we are dealing with things, not a person or place. Now for a little interpretation.

***** Begin Book 6 Spoilers*****
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I think its pretty obvious that Deathly Hallows, using definition 2 from above, could easily refer to remaining Horcruxes. What do we believe some of those to be? Perhaps Hufflepuffs cup, we know Slytherins locket, and Harry deeply suspects some other relic of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor (Sorting hat? Sword? There are probably other obvious possibilities passing my mind right now). We have seen the deathly effects of one such hallow as Dumbledore drank the mysterious liquid to get to what he believed was a horcrux, but what turned out to be a letter from RAB (now known to be Regulus Black). Throughout Book 6 we also observed Dumbledore's withered hand which became so when the ring he had worn was destroyed. The horcruxes and their destruction have carried with them deathly effects and require by the nature of their creation a "deathly" act. It can only be assumed that book seven will include the destruction of many more horcruxes. If these are what "Deathly Hallows" refer to, and it seems to me that it is, though, i'm sure it isn't this simple and JKR is having a good laugh at us all, then this title has been the least mysterious/revealing of all. It refers to something(s) we are quite familiar with. Every other title has done just the opposite. That alone may be enough to doubt the simplicity of this theory, but until Book 7 comes out, i'll stick to my guns and wait to be blown out of the water by Miss Rowling.